Gordon Hutchinson Concealed Carry Training

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The Great New Orleans Gun Grab

A searing expose' of the scandal of gun confiscations that occurred in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Lest we ever forget.

The Quest and the Quarry

A hunting story of the Deep South. How generations of kids from a farming family are taught the lessons of life through the experience of the hunt by one wise old grandfather, and a line of trophy bucks they pursue.

About Me

Author: "THE GREAT NEW ORLEANS GUN GRAB" (with Todd Masson), an expose' of the anarchy and outrageous behavior of civil authorities who confiscated thousands of guns from law-abiding citizens in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Also the author of "THE QUEST AND THE QUARRY"--a southern novel of the hunt.
Firearms columnist for LOUISIANA, NORTH & SOUTH CAROLINA, and MISSISSIPPI SPORTSMAN magazines.
Founding Member of the
Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.
Training Officer and Spokesperson
for the Lunatic Fringe.
Unapologetic Gun Nut
(with apologies to David E. Petzal.) Former Airborne Infantry Officer (82nd Airborne Division.) Former law enforcement firearms instructor. Current concealed carry instructor.
gordonhutchinson.com

Katrina Survivors Take Arms

Jo Ann Guidos, owner of Kajun's Bar, stood off looters with her handguns, Remington 1100 shotgun, and a motley crew of regulars at her bar. They are shown here standing outside the bar a day or two before her guns were confiscated by U.S. Marshals as she was attempting to load her vehicles and get out of the madness of New Orleans. Photo courtesy of Jo Ann Guidos

"8 Bodies In Place"

These are the ubiquitous signs--the hex symbols of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Teams would spray the signs on the outside of buildings once they had been searched. At the top was the date of the search. On each side of the "X" was the numerical identifier of the unit conducting the search. At the bottom of the symbol was the number of bodies found in the building. In this case, eight people were found in Jo Ann Guido's bar. If the bodies were not alive, the more chilling "Dead" would be added under the number. Photo courtesy Jo Ann Guidos.

Followers

Sunday, March 4, 2012

The recoil of the 168
grain Hornady Match A-Max .30-06 rammed the rifle stock backwards, pushing it straight
into my shoulder—in line with the prone position I had taken in the gravel
shooting pit of the rifle range.

“Riding the Bull” as
Tim Fallon called it, I rocked back down onto the bipod and my rear support, a
backpack, my cheek welded securely to the cheekpiece we had attached to our
rifle stocks.

If we were perfectly
welded to the stocks of the .30-06 Ruger American Rifles, we would be able to
see the reaction of the target to the bullet strike—in other words, going up
with the recoil and returning to the shooting position while never losing sight
of the target—some people call it “follow-through.” Tim, ever colorful and an excellent instructor, makes it
stick in your mind with defining metaphors like “Riding the Bull.”

To my satisfaction, I saw the 12” steel gong,
over 500 yards away, swing violently.
A second after the muzzle
blast died, I heard the distinct ringing “bong” of the heavy steel plate being
struck by the bullet.

We, gun writers all,
had been brought into this rugged escarpment hill country some 80 miles
northwest of San Antonio, Texas by Ruger to the FTW Ranch, a 12,000 acre exotic game
ranch that offers trophy hunting for whitetail deer, and Asian and African
plains and mountain game. The ranch is home to
huge whitetails, and wild introduced species, many of which can no longer be
hunted in their native lands.

Tim Fallon, the owner
of this rugged, rocky landscape, saw a need for a shooting school for hunters
and long-range rifle shooters in law enforcement and the military, and founded
SAAM—Sportsman’s All-Weather, All-Terrain Marksmanship.

SAAM focuses on
hunter training for mountainous and plains game, and offers safari training
which focuses on dangerous game hunts.
The schooling has gained such a reputation, military and law enforcement
special ops are using the facilities to hone their skills at long-range
shooting.

Ruger Firearms had brought us to this game ranch and training facility to shoot and experience their Ruger American Rifle--the innovative bolt-action hunting rifle that incorporates numerous manufacturing designs to reduce cost, and enhance accuracy. (www.ruger.com)

The result was far
more than a media “shoot” to try out a new gun. Tim Fallon and his former SEAL lead instructor, Doug “Dog” Prichard, put
us and our rifles through a three-day version that incorporated aspects of SAAM
1, SAAM 2, and their Safari Course.

Arriving at the ranch
on Sunday evening, we were treated to the first of a series of meals that proved
to be sumptuous and delicious—every meal period. This is ranch food. Ban any thought of ever going hungry
during the training.

Starting Monday
morning, Tim gave us a schedule we would follow for the next several days. The 12 writers were split into two
groups and each would be taught by either Tim, or Doug “Dog” Prichard, a 26
year Navy Warrant Officer--25 of those as a SEAL sniper instructor.

Tim set us up on a
long, sloping hill shooting down ranges beginning at 100 yards, and then extending
out past 500 yards in 50 yard increments. “Whatever was your
maximum comfortable range,” he told us, “you will be shooting far past that
point before this course is over.”

The Ruger American Rifles were outfitted with Harris Bi-Pods, Zeiss Conquest 3 X 9
scopes, and special Ruger strap-on cheek pads that new rifle owners can receive
free of charge once they register their American Rifles with Ruger for warranty
purposes.

The rifle package
includes Weaver scope mounts, and the scopes were held with these mounts…an
extremely strong system that proved itself when the jeep took an unscheduled
violent jerk and the rifle fell from the upright rest in one of the jeeps,
striking the top of the dash. A
later check found the scope to be out only 1.5” high and 1” to the right at 100
yards.

That first morning,
we shot the rifles from a prone position beginning at 100 yards. They were
sighted in dead point of aim at 100 yards. The Zeiss scopes had small target turrets graduated in ¼”
increments, meaning four clicks on the turret moved the bullet impact 1” at 100
yards.

Once the “baseline
zero” was established for both windage and elevation, we started shooting the
rifles farther and farther out, checking the elevation adjustments against the
known ranges.

That evening, Tim
Fallon retired to his office, and used a ballistic program considering the
ballistic coefficient, sectional density, and velocity of the bullet to
determine how many minutes-of-angle (4 clicks per inch) were required for our
rifle/scope/bullet combination for increasing lengths of range.

The next morning, Tim
presented each of us with our own “DOPE” or range cards for our rifles. These cards would be present in our
pockets or inside the cheek pads from that day forward, and would be referred
to constantly in shooting for distance.
Doug later told us the definition he had always heard for “DOPE” is
“Data on Previous Engagements.”
Like me, now you know…

My personal card
carried notations on elevation settings from 100 yards (Base-Line Zero) to 700
yards—20.75 minutes of angle to hold dead center on a 12” round gong and ring
it at 700 yards with these .30-06 rifles.

Before this class
would be over, we would all shoot these incredibly accurate rifles at those
ranges, be able to estimate wind drift and angle, and ring gongs consistently.

Along with the
rifle/scope/bipod/cheekpieces, we were issued PAST pads—this is a shooter’s
accessory—a strap-on shoulder pad that in spite of its thin appearance, dissipates
the recoil from these light (6.25 lb) rifles and kept us all from having
severely bruised shoulders after firing some 240 rounds over several days.

We were issued Ruger
backpacks to carry our range cards and gear. Knowing we would be visiting different ranges across the
ranch, I had brought my own personal Bushnell Compact 800 rangefinder and Valdada
10X42 binoculars.

The entire premise of
taking these courses is conservation and hunter ethics. Many people that come to the ranch are going
on expensive hunts in far-off places.
They need to know how their rifle shoots to take advantage of a shot on
trophy game when it presents itself.

As the instructors at
SAAM point out, it is each hunter’s responsibility to take a shot only when he
is certain of his ability to anchor the animal with a killing shot, not
wounding or causing suffering and lingering death. The SAAM courses insure each hunter knows his distance and
limitations. Testimonials cover
their walls and fill their brochures with incredible shots made by former
students. A common theme of these
is the student would never have attempted such a shot without the training he
(or she) received at SAAM.

In addition to
shooting at distance, the courses cover judging angle up or down, and its
effects on bullet drop, and “doping” wind.

While shooting in a
friendly 100-point match at ranges out to 535 yards with 20 targets, my
“spotter” was Fredo, one of the Hispanic employees of the school. Fredo and I became a team, much like a
sniper/spotter team.

The range would be
called, the target identified. I
would call out to Fredo, “Shooter ready!”

What Fredo was
telling me was to make sure I had set my scope elevation to 525 yards off my
DOPE card, and hold the width of the plate to the left of its edge.

When I pulled the
trigger and the gong sounded, Fredo would squeal with delight “Goud Shot! Goud Shot!” reach down from his stool behind his Zeiss spotting scope and clap me on the
shoulder.

All of these
instructors were past masters at reading the wind—which is more art than
science. Looking downrange, they
would note the effects of the wind at the target—was it kicking up dust? Were leaves moving on the trees in the
vicinity? Was the grass moving?
What was wind doing to the “mirage” or visible heat waves rising in the
scope’s view?

It was exhilarating
to hold dead-on a target at over 500 yards, have your spotter dope the wind and
tell you to hold 1.5 plates to the left (18”), the vertical crosshairs
completely off the plate, hold your breath while dragging the butt of the rifle
solidly into your recoil pad, see the gong bounce violently, and a split second
later hear the ringing noise.

This was rifle
country, and a rifleman’s school, and I was in absolute heaven. I missed three of 20 shots, scored an 86
out of 100, and won my group. A
huge laugh was gained when I noticed I had shot practically the entire match on
3 power. That’s one of those
moments when you wish you had kept your mouth shut.

Tim Fallon manages to
cram an amazing amount of information on your 4” wide and 2.5” tall DOPE
card. While the front of the card
gives you MOA corrections, the back of it gives you formulas for figuring wind
correction according to wind speed, and instructions on how to compensate for
the width of your crosshairs and use the thick portions of Duplex reticles to
help you aim.

If it all sounds
complicated, it can be. The first
morning, with Tim and Doug describing everything, and how we would be using the
features of the scopes to hit at extreme ranges, I thought, “I will never
remember all this. It’s
impossible!”

By the third morning,
it was second nature to hear the range called, dial the turret, estimate the
wind drift, and hit the target consistently out to 500 yards.

And 400 yards? My old, outer limit for taking a
shot? Well, it had become a chip
shot.

Hunting can be
expensive, especially exotic hunts that entail long travel, hard work, and the
possibility of getting only one shot at that record trophy you have been
dreaming of collecting most of your life.
SAAM training is simple hunt insurance, a reasonable investment to
insure that hunt of a lifetime succeeds in every category, including telling
your guide, “I got ‘im,” when he positions you with a near impossible lengthy
shot, and you watch your trophy fall DRT.
“Dead. Right there.”

The exhilaration of
taking game at what is called “bragging distance” is icing on what will be
remembered as the hunt of a lifetime—and you can thank Tim, Doug, and the crew
at FTW Ranch for making you the skilled marksman the guides tell their future clients
about.

(For complete information on
S.A.A.M. training, the Safari Course, and the different length schools, go to www.ftwoutfitters.com . Group discounts are
available.)

6 comments:

Nice! This is amazing. You make me want to go and enroll myself in an S.A.A.M. class. How stringent would the training be? And how much budget should I allocate, starting from the kit to the other accouterments ?